Information processing method, information processing apparatus, and program

The present application is based on and claims the benefit of priority of Japanese Priority Application No. 2018-236792, filed on Dec. 18, 2018, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

Field

The present disclosure relates to an information processing method, an information processing apparatus, and a program.

Background

In recent years, various types of electronic commerce are carried out on the Internet. Patent Document 1 discloses a service of intermediating between a buyer and a seller that keeps the payment of a purchase of a product from the buyer, confirms that the product has been delivered to the buyer, and then, transfers the payment to the seller. Also, Patent Document 2 discloses that an intermediary agent pays to the payee through its server without disclosing to the payee the money source selected by the payer and the actual account selected by the payer. PRIOR ART DOCUMENTS Patent Documents

Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-352170 Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2018-120619

However, in such conventional techniques, the delivery charge of a product to be totaled with the price of the product is calculated after information representing the delivery destination of the product is entered at the sales site of the product. Therefore, the buyer will not know the amount of the delivery charge of the product until the buyer enters information representing the delivery destination of the product. Also, the conventional techniques do not take into account the credit level of the seller who sells the product.

It is an object of an embodiment in the disclosure to provide a technology that enables to enhance the convenience of the user upon purchasing a product and to set an appropriate upper limit of the amount of settlement.

Summary

According to one embodiment in the present disclosure, an information processing method executed by one or more processors included in an information processing apparatus. The method includes obtaining a notice indicating that a deferred payment has been selected for a settlement of a price of a product on a website; identifying a seller to which the settlement is to be made; receiving a request for settlement on an amount of money determined based on information including information on delivery of the product and information on the price of the product; and advancing the settlement in a case where the amount of money is less than or equal to an upper limit of an amount of settlement using the deferred payment allowed for a user.

Brief description of drawings

FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of a communication system according to an aspect of embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a hardware configuration of an information processing apparatus according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an information processing apparatus according to a first embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a user information storage unit according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a sequence of steps performed in a communication system according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a display aspect on a terminal when selecting a settlement method according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a display aspect on a terminal when displaying product information and a delivery charge according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a display aspect on a terminal when making a request for settlement according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a display aspect on a terminal for selecting a settlement method to be used according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a display aspect on a terminal when settlement is to be approved according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a display aspect on a terminal when receiving a notice of settlement completion according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 12 illustrates a functional configuration of a server and a terminal according to a second application example;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of a sequence of steps of a communication system according to the second application example;

FIG. 14 illustrates a functional configuration of a server and a terminal according to a second embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a site information storage unit according to the second embodiment; and

FIG. 16 illustrates a flow chart of steps of setting borrowing limits according to the second embodiment.

Description of embodiments

<Legal Compliance>

The disclosures described herein, when implemented, are made in compliance with the laws and regulations of the countries in which the disclosure is implemented. Also, the disclosures described herein are implemented with all changes, substitutions, variations, transformations, and modifications that may be made by a person skilled in the art necessary to comply with the laws and regulations of each country.

Embodiments for carrying out settlement according to the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.

<System Configuration>

FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of a communication system 1 according to an embodiment in the present disclosure. As disclosed in FIG. 1 , in the communication system 1 , servers 110 A and 110 B; terminals 120 A, 120 B, and 120 C; and an external server 140 are connected via a network 130 .

In the present disclosure, in the case where it is not necessary to make a distinction between the server 110 A and the server 110 B, the server 110 A and/or the server 110 B may be referred to as the server(s) 110 .

In the present disclosure, in the case where it is not necessary to make a distinction among the terminals 120 A, 120 B, and 120 C, the terminals 120 A, 120 B, and/or 120 C may be referred to as the terminal(s) 120 .

In the present disclosure, in the case where it is not necessary to make a distinction between the server 110 and the terminal 120 , the server 110 and/or the terminal 120 may be referred to as an information processing apparatus(es) 200 . Note that the number of information processing apparatuses 200 connected to the network 130 is not limited in particular.

The server 110 provides predetermined services to the terminals 120 used by users via the network 130 . The predetermined services include, but are not limited to, for example, settlement services, financial services, electronic commerce services, social networking services (SNS) represented by instant messengers, providing services of contents such as music, videos, books, and the like. When the users use the predetermined services via terminals 120 , the server 110 can provide the predetermined services to the one or more terminals 120 .

In the present disclosure, a settlement service means a service in which one or more users can exchange money or money equivalents. Settlement services include, but are not limited to, for example, services that use one-dimensional codes (e.g., bar codes), two-dimensional codes (e.g., QR codes (registered trademarks)) (collectively referred to as “two-dimensional codes and the like”, below), and short-range wireless communication (Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth (registered trademark) Low Energy (BLE), Wi-Fi (registered trademarks), ultrasound communication, infrared communication, etc.). Also, a settlement in which a user (payer) who pays a price on the terminal 120 by reading a two-dimensional code or the like to make the settlement will be referred to as “user-readable code settlement” or “MPM (Merchant Presented Mode)”; and a settlement in which a user (payer) who causes his/her terminal 120 to display a two-dimensional code or the like so that the displayed two-dimensional code or the like is read by a terminal 120 of another user (seller or requester) at a store side or the like who requests a payment of the price to the payer so as to make the settlement will be referred to as “store-readable code settlement” or “CPM (Consumer Presented Mode)”. Note that MPM and CPM may be dynamic or static.

When necessary, a terminal used by a user X will be referred to as the terminal 120 X, and user information in a predetermined service associated with the user X or the terminal 120 X will be referred to as the user information X. Note that user information is information on a user associated with an account used by the user for a predetermined service. The user information includes, but is not limited to, for example, information associated with the user such as a name of the user, an icon image of the user, the age of the user, the gender of the user, an address of the user, a hobby or taste of the user, and an identifier of the user; balance information on an electronic value (e.g., electronic money) associated with the user; and credit card information (e.g., a credit card number) associated with the user.

The user information may be entered by the user or provided by a predetermined service, and may be any one of the above items or a combination of the above items.

The network 130 plays a role in connecting two or more information processing apparatuses 200 . The network 130 means a communication network that provides a connection path through which data can be transmitted and received after the terminal 120 has established a connection to the server 110 .

One or more portions of the network 130 may be a wired network or a wireless network. The network 130 includes, but is not limited to, for example, an ad hoc network, intranet, extranet, Virtual Private Network (VPN), local area network (LAN), wireless LAN (WLAN), wide area network (WAN), wireless WAN (WWAN), metropolitan network (MAN), part of the Internet, part of a public switched telephone network (PSTN), cellular network, ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network), Wireless LAN, LTE (Long Term Evolution), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), Bluetooth (registered trademark), satellite communication, or any combination of two or more of these. The network 130 may include one or more networks.

The information processing apparatus 200 may be any information processing apparatus as long as being capable of implementing functions and methods described in the present disclosure.

The information processing apparatuses 200 include, but are not limited to, for example, a smartphone, cellular phone (feature phone), computer (including, but not limited to, e.g., a desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.), server device, media computer platform (including, but not limited to, e.g., a cable, satellite set-top box, digital video recorder, etc.), handheld computer device (including, but not limited to, e.g., a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), e-mail client, etc.), wearable terminal (including, but not limited to, e.g., a glass-type device, watch-type device, etc.), other types of computers and communication platforms.

The external server 140 is, for example, a server associated with a company (an example of a seller) that sells products via electronic commerce. The external server 140 is provided by company by company, and multiple external servers 140 may be connected to the network 130 . The external server 140 provides an EC (Electronic Commerce) site to the terminals 120 that access the external server 140 .

<Hardware Configuration>

The hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus 200 included in the communication system 1 will be described with reference to FIG. 2 .

The information processing apparatus 200 includes a processor 201 , a memory 202 , a storage 203 , an input/output interface (input/output I/F) 204 , and a communication interface (communication I/F) 205 . These elements of the information processing apparatus 200 are interconnected via a bus B as a non-limiting example.

The information processing apparatus 200 implements functions and/or methods described in the present disclosure through interoperation among the processor 201 , the memory 202 , the storage 203 , the input/output I/F 204 , and the communication I/F 205 .

The processor 201 performs functions and methods implemented by codes or instructions included in a program stored in the storage 203 . The processor 201 includes, but are not limited to, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a micro processing unit (MPU), a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), a microprocessor, a processor core, multiprocessors, an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), and the like. Alternatively, processes disclosed in the embodiments may be implemented by logic circuits (hardware) formed as an integrated circuit (IC) chip, an LSI (Large Scale Integration) chip, or a dedicated circuit. Also, these circuits may be implemented by one or more integrated circuits, and multiple processes illustrated in the embodiments may be implemented by a single integrated circuit. Also, LSI may be referred to as VLSI, super LSI, or ultra LSI, in accordance with different levels of integration.

The memory 202 temporarily stores a program loaded from the storage 203 , to provide a working area for the processor 201 . Various items of data generated while the processor 201 executes the program are temporarily stored in the memory 202 . The memory 202 includes, but is not limited to, for example, a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read-Only Memory), and the like.

The storage 203 stores one or more programs. The storage 203 includes, but is not limited to, for example, an HDD (hard disk drive), an SSD (solid state drive), a flash memory, and the like.

The communication I/F 205 transmits and receives various items of data via the network 130 . The communication may be performed by wire or wirelessly, and any communication protocol may be used as long as being capable of performing bidirectional communication. The communication I/F 205 has a function to perform communication with another information processing apparatus via the network 130 . The communication I/F 205 transmits various items of data to the other information processing apparatus according to instructions from the processor 201 . Also, the communication I/F 205 receives various items of data transmitted from the other information processing apparatus and transfers the received data to the processor 201 .

The input/output I/F 204 includes an input device for inputting various operations to the information processing apparatus 200 and an output device for outputting results processed by the information processing apparatus 200 . The input/output I/F 204 may have the input device and the output device integrated, or may have the input device and the output device separated.

The input device may be implemented by any device among all types of devices that can receive input from a user and transfer information on the input to the processor 201 , or by a combination of these devices. The input devices include, but are not limited to, for example, touch panels, touch displays, hardware keys such as a keyboard; pointing devices such as a mouse; cameras (operational input via images); and microphones (operational input via voice).

The output device may be implemented by any device among all types of devices that can output results processed by the processor 201 , or by a combination of these devices. In the case of outputting a processed result as a video or moving images, the output device may be implemented by any device among all types of devices that can display data to be displayed according to the data written into a frame buffer, or by a combination of these devices. The output devices include, but are not limited to, for example, touch panels, touch displays, monitors (including, but not limited to, e.g., liquid crystal displays, OELDs (Organic Electroluminescence Displays)), head-mounted displays (HDMs), projection mapping, holograms, devices capable of displaying images, text information, and the like in the air (which may be vacuum), speakers, printers, and the like. Note that these output devices may be capable of displaying display data in 3D.

The programs according to the embodiments in the present disclosure may be provided in a state of being stored in a computer-readable recording medium. Such a recording medium as a “non-transitory tangible medium” can store a program. The programs include, but are not limited to, for example, software programs and computer programs.

The recording media may include, where appropriate, one or more semiconductor-based or other integrated circuits (ICs) (including, but not limited to, e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific ICs (ASICs), etc.), hard disk drives (HDDs), hybrid hard drives (HHDs), optical disks, optical disk drives (ODDs), magneto-optical disks, magneto-optical drives, floppy diskettes, floppy disk drives (FDDs), magnetic tapes, solid-state drives (SSDs), RAM drives, secure digital cards or drives, any other suitable recording media, and suitable combinations of two or more of these. The recording media may be volatile, non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile media when appropriate.

Also, a program in the present disclosure may be provided to the information processing apparatus 200 via any transmission medium (such as a communication network or broadcasting wave) capable of transmitting the program.

Also, the embodiments in the present disclosure may also be implemented in a form of data signals embedded in a carrier wave in which a program is embodied by electronic transmission.

Note that programs in the present disclosure may be implemented by using programming languages including, but not limited to, for example, scripting languages such as JavaScript (registered trademark), Python, C language, Go language, Swift, Kotlin, Java (registered trademark), and the like.

At least part of processing in the information processing apparatus 200 may be implemented by cloud computing constituted with one or more computers.

At least part of processing in the information processing apparatus 200 may be configured to be executed on another information processing apparatus. In this case, at least part of processing executed by functional units implemented by the processor 201 may be configured to be executed on the other information processing apparatus.

<Other>

Unless explicitly stated otherwise, in the present disclosure, a determination may not be a requisite, and a predetermined process may be executed when a determination condition is satisfied or a predetermined process may be executed when a determination condition is not satisfied.

In the present disclosure, unless explicitly stated otherwise, or unless indicated otherwise in context, “at least one of A and B” means “A, B, or both”. Furthermore, unless explicitly stated otherwise, or unless indicated otherwise in context, “a”, “an”, or “the” means “one or more”. Therefore, in the present specification, unless explicitly stated otherwise, or unless indicated otherwise in context, “an A” or “the A” means “one or more A”.

The present disclosure encompasses all changes, substitutions, transformations, modifications, and revisions that may be made by those skilled in the art with respect to the embodiments and application examples in the present disclosure. Also, the attached claims encompass all changes, substitutions, transformations, modifications, and revisions that may be made by those skilled in the art with respect to the embodiments and application examples in the present disclosure. Further, the present disclosure encompasses any combination of one or more features of an embodiment or application example in the present disclosure and one or more features of another embodiment or application example in the present disclosure, which may be made by those skilled in the art.

In addition, references in the attached claims to a device, system, or an element of the device or the system that is adapted, arranged, capable, configurable, usable, operational, or operable to implement a particular function encompass the device, system, or element, regardless of the device, system, element, or particular function being activated, turned on, or unlocked, as long as the device, system, or element is adapted, arranged, capable, configurable, usable, operational, or operable in that way.

Upon implementing any embodiment or application example in the present disclosure, unless explicitly stated otherwise, consent may be obtained from the user in advance or immediately before the implementation. Also, the consent may be obtained comprehensively or on each occasion of implementation. First Embodiment

The first embodiment provides information representing an address of a user to the external server 140 .

The first embodiment brings an effect that at a sales site of products implemented on the external server 140 , it is possible to present a delivery charge of a product corresponding to the user without requiring the user to enter the address.

<Functional Configuration of the First Embodiment>

The functional configuration of the server 110 and the terminal 120 will be described with reference to FIG. 3 . Functional units disclosed in FIG. 3 may be implemented by interoperation among the processor 201 , the memory 202 , the storage 203 , the input/output I/F 204 , and the communication I/F 205 provided in the information processing apparatus 200 .

Functional Configuration of the Server

The server 110 includes a transceiver unit 312 , a control unit 313 , and a storage unit 314 . Note that functions or processes of the functional units may be implemented by machine learning or AI (Artificial Intelligence) within a feasible range.

The transceiver unit 312 transmits and receives data to and from the terminal 120 or the like according to a command from the control unit 313 . Note that the transceiver unit 312 establishes a session for communication with the terminal 120 using HTTPS or the like when the user of the terminal 120 is authenticated by, for example, a user ID and a password included in a login request from the terminal 120 . Then, the communication address of the terminal 120 and the user ID are stored in association with the ID of the established session for communication. Then, the transceiver unit 312 transmits data to the terminal 120 by using the established session for communication.

The control unit 313 performs processing to provide services such as settlement services, financial services, and electronic commerce services to the user of the terminal 120 . The control unit 313 will be described in detail later.

The storage unit 314 includes a user information storage unit 3141 to store user information of the terminal 120 . The user information storage unit 3141 will be described in detail later. Also, the storage unit 314 stores programs and the like executed on the server 110 .

The control unit 313 in the present embodiment includes a user information identifying unit 315 , an information output unit 316 , a settlement unit 317 , and a browser recognition unit 318 .

The user information identifying unit 315 identifies user information including a user ID in the storage unit 314 , based on the user ID included in a login request from the terminal 120 .

The information output unit 316 outputs information representing an address of the user included in the user information identified by the user information identifying unit 315 to the external server 140 via the transceiver unit 312 .

The settlement unit 317 performs settlement in response to a request for settlement of a price to be paid from the terminal 120 .

The browser recognition unit 318 recognizes a browser that has been activated on the terminal 120 before the request for settlement is made, and after the settlement by the settlement unit 317 has been completed, issues a command to the terminal 120 to perform displaying by the recognized browser.

Functional Configuration of the Terminal

The terminal 120 includes a receiver unit 321 , a transceiver unit 322 , a control unit 323 , and a storage unit 324 . Note that functions or processes of the functional units may be implemented by machine learning or AI (Artificial Intelligence) within a feasible range.

The receiver unit 321 receives various operations and the like from the user of the terminal 120 .

The transceiver unit 322 transmits and receives data to and from the server 110 or the like according to a command from the control unit 323 . Note that the transceiver unit 322 establishes a session for communication with the server 110 using HTTPS or the like when logging in on the server 110 . Then, the communication address of the server 110 or the like is stored in association with the ID of the established session for communication. Then, the transceiver unit 322 transmits data to the server 110 by using the established session for communication.

The control unit 323 performs processing to use services provided on the server 110 , such as settlement services, financial services, and electronic commerce services.

The storage unit 324 stores programs executed on the terminal 120 , and the like.

Example of User Information Storage Unit

In the following, the user information storage unit 3141 in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 4 . FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the user information storage unit 3141 of the first embodiment.

The user information storage unit 3141 in the present embodiment stores, as items of information, user IDs, user names, addresses, balances, borrowing limits, settlement histories, settlement methods, attributes, credit levels, and the like. In the user information storage unit 3141 , the item “user ID” is associated with the other items.

A value of the item “user ID” represents user identification information for identifying a user of a settlement service provided on the server 110 . A value of the item “user name” represents a name of the user. A value of the item “address” represents an address of the user.

Values of the item “balance” represent balances of the amount of money available to the user for settlement. Specifically, the item “balance” is associated with items of “holding balance” and “borrowable balance”. A value of the item “holding balance” represents the amount of money that the user has deposited on the server 110 . The amount of money that the user has deposited on the server 110 may include, for example, money received for products or the like when the user sells the products or the like using an electronic commerce service provided on the server 110 . The amount of money may also include, for example, amounts charged by using banks, credit cards, cash registers, and the like. A value of the item “borrowable balance” represents the amount obtained by subtracting the borrowing amount from the borrowing limit.

A value of the item “borrowing limit” represents the upper limit of the amount of money that the user can borrow from the operator of the server 110 , to be used for settlement for a predetermined period of time (e.g., one month). In other words, the borrowing limit represents the upper limit of an amount of settlement that the user can settle by borrowing from the operator of the server 110 within the predetermined period of time.

A value of the item “borrowing amount” represents the total amount of money that the user borrows from the operator of the server 110 for using in settlements for the predetermined period of time. Note that the total amount of borrowed money may be settled monthly or every predetermined period.

A value of the item “points” represents, for example, points given on the server 110 available to the user for payments of prices. Note that one point may be set to be used for payment of one Japanese yen (denoted as JP¥, below).

A value of the item “settlement history” represents a settlement history of the corresponding user. Specifically, a value of the item “settlement history” may include, for example, information that identifies a web site at which the corresponding user made settlement using a settlement service provided on the server 110 , or information on products purchased by the user using the settlement service.

A value of the item “settlement method” represents a method of settlement used by the user in a settlement service provided on the server 110 . Specifically, settlement methods may include, for example, a method of paying the price by way of a deferred payment service or a method of paying the price by way of a charge payment service.

The deferred payment service is a deferred payment service among the settlement services provided on the server 110 ; for example, the service may allow a lump-sum amount payment within a predetermined period, such as by the end of the next month, in combination with payments of products purchased through a transaction service provided on the server 110 . Also, the upper limit of the amount of money that can be paid by the lump-sum amount payment through the deferred payment service may be equivalent to the borrowing limit.

A charge payment service is a method of depositing money (charging) from a bank, credit card, or cash register at a store to the holding balance to make payment out of the deposited money.

Values of the item “attributes” represent attributes of the user. Specifically, the item of “attributes” is associated with an item “age” and an item “occupation.” A value of the item “age” represents the age of the user, and the item “occupation” represents the occupation of the user.

A value of the item “credit level” represents, for example, a value obtained from personal information of the user including a behavioral history and/or a settlement history, where a higher credit level indicates a better user.

In the example in FIG. 4 , for example, the user having a user ID of “001” and a user name of “user A” has an address in OO city in XX prefecture, a holding balance of JP¥200, a borrowable balance of JP¥10,000, a borrowing limit of JP¥10,000, a borrowing amount of JP¥0, and 100 points.

In other words, the user A can borrow JP¥10,000; therefore, the amount of money that can be paid by the user A is JP¥10,300 including the 100 points.

<Operational Steps in the First Embodiment>

With reference to FIG. 5 , steps executed in the communication system 1 according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a sequence of steps in the communication system 1 according to the present embodiment.

In the communication system 1 , at Step S 501 , the external server 140 causes the terminal 120 to display a screen for selecting a payment method.

Note that the external server 140 causes the terminal 120 to display an EC site, for example, when the terminal 120 accesses the external server 140 . Then, in response to receiving a request for displaying a screen for selecting a settlement method for payment from the terminal 120 , the external server 140 may cause the terminal 120 to display the screen for selecting a settlement method.

Once a settlement service provided on the server 110 has been selected at Step S 502 as the settlement method on the screen for selecting a settlement method, at Step S 503 , the terminal 120 transmits, to the external server 140 , a notice indicating that the settlement service provided on the server 110 has been selected as the settlement method of paying the price for a product. The terminal 120 may hold a user ID associated with the settlement service provided on the server 110 in advance, and upon transmitting the notice, may transmit the held user ID to the external server 140 with the notice indicating that the settlement method has been selected.

Alternatively, in the present embodiment, in the case where the user ID is not held on the terminal 120 , at Step S 503 , only the notice indicating that the setting method has been selected is sent to the external server 140 . In this case, the external server 140 may send this notice to the server 110 , and the server 110 may cause the terminal 120 to display a screen for entering the user ID, password, and the like.

In response to receiving the notice and the user ID from the terminal 120 , at Step S 504 , the external server 140 transmits the notice and the user ID to the server 110 .

In response to receiving, by the transceiver unit 312 , the notice indicating that the settlement method of paying the price of the product has been selected on the server 110 and the user ID, at Step S 505 , the server 110 causes the user information identifying unit 315 of the control unit 313 to refer to the user information storage unit 3141 so as to identify the user information associated with the received user ID. In other words, the transceiver unit 312 in the present embodiment is an example of a first receiver unit to receive a notice indicating that the settlement method of paying the price of a product on the server 110 has been selected.

Once having identified the user information, next, at Step S 506 , the server 110 causes the information output unit 316 of the control unit 313 to output the information representing the address of the user that is included in the identified user information, to the external server 140 . In the following description, information representing an address of the user will be referred to as address information.

Note that in the case where the credit level included in the user information associated with the user ID is less than or equal to a predetermined value, instead of transmitting the address information, the server 110 may transmit to the terminal 120 a notice indicating that use of the settlement service provided on the server 110 is not permitted, via the external server 140 .

In response to receiving a request for displaying a list of products from the terminal 120 at Step S 507 , at Step S 508 , the external server 140 causes the terminal 120 to display a screen of the list of products.

Next, once a product has been selected on the terminal 120 at Step S 509 , at Step S 510 , the external server 140 calculates the delivery charge of the selected product based on the product information on the selected product and the address information received at Step S 506 . Then, at Step S 511 , the external server 140 causes the terminal 120 to display a product screen including the calculated delivery charge and the price of the product.

Note that Steps S 507 through S 509 are not limited to be executed at this timing, and may be executed before Step S 501 .

Note that the product information in the present embodiment is information stored in a product database or the like held on the external server 140 , which includes, for example, product IDs for identifying respective products, product names, product prices, product description information for explaining the size, weight, use, and the like of each product, and product image data.

Also, the method of calculating a delivery charge may be determined in advance on the external server 140 .

For example, the method of calculating a delivery charge may be determined depending on a delivery agent associated with a company associated with the external server 140 .

Specifically, for example, delivery charges for respective regions may be determined in advance on the external server 140 , which may depend on the volume of each product in a state of being packaged. In this case, the external server 140 simply needs to calculate the delivery charge depending on the volume of the product in the state of being packaged and the address information.

Also, for example, delivery charges for respective regions may be determined in advance on the external server 140 , which may depend on the total weight of products to be delivered. In this case, the external server 140 simply needs to calculate the delivery charge depending on the weight and address information of the selected products.

Also, for example, the delivery charge may be set to be free on the external server 140 in the case where the total payment for the prices of products exceeds a certain amount.

Further, for example, in the case where a delivery charge associated with a specific region (such as a remote island) is set in advance on the external server 140 , and the area designated by the address information is the specific region, the delivery charge associated with this region may be used as the delivery charge of a product.

At Step S 512 , the terminal 120 displays a screen of a product in which information on the product and the delivery charge are displayed. In other words, the screen of the product is a screen that includes the product price and the delivery charge. Also, on the screen of the product, the total payment that sums up the product price and the delivery charge may be displayed.

Once a product has been selected on the product screen on the terminal 120 , at Step S 513 , an order confirmation screen for placing an order for the product is displayed. In response to receiving a settlement command on the order confirmation screen, at Step S 514 , the terminal 120 transmits a request for settlement to the external server 140 . At Step S 515 , the external server 140 transmits the request for settlement to the server 110 .

In response to receiving the request for settlement by the transceiver unit 312 , at Step S 516 , the server 110 causes the terminal 120 to display a settlement screen. In other words, the transceiver unit 312 is an example of a second receiver unit to receive a request for settlement.

At this time, the server 110 may display a settlement screen that allows the user to select a method to be used from among multiple settlement methods provided on the server 110 . The multiple settlement methods provided on the server 110 may include a method of paying the price out of the holding balance; a method of paying the price using points; a method of paying the price through a deferred payment service; and the like.

At Step S 517 , an operation indicating that the amount of payment has been confirmed is performed on the terminal 120 , and then, at Step S 518 , the terminal 120 transmits a notice indicating that the amount of payment has been confirmed to the server 110 .

In response to receiving this notice, at Step S 519 , the server 110 causes the terminal 120 to display an approval screen on the terminal 120 for receiving approval of the settlement.

In response to receiving an operation indicating an approval of the settlement on the approval screen at Step S 520 , at Step S 521 , the terminal 120 transmits a notice indicating that the settlement has been approved to the server 110 .

In response to receiving the notice, at Step S 522 , the server 110 causes the settlement unit 317 of the control unit 313 to perform settlement of the amount of payment, and when the settlement is completed, at Step S 523 , transmits a settlement completion notice to the terminal 120 . Note that the server 110 may also send a settlement completion notice to the external server 140 . Next, at Step S 524 , the server 110 causes the browser recognition unit 318 of the control unit 313 to recognize the browser that was activated on the terminal 120 immediately before performing the settlement, and causes the recognized browser to display a screen displayed immediately before displaying the settlement screen.

<Display Aspects on the Terminal 120 in the First Embodiment>

In the following, display aspects on the terminal 120 will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 to 11 . FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a display aspect on the terminal 120 when selecting a settlement method according to the first embodiment.

A screen 61 illustrated in FIG. 6 is an example of a screen for selecting a settlement method displayed on the terminal 120 at Step S 501 in FIG. 5 .

The description continues in the full USPTO document.